SACRAMENTO, California — The wet winter is the gift that keeps on giving to Californians and this time that gift will manifest itself in vivid fall color this autumn across Northern California.
The changing of the leaves is already underway for much of the state, with many locations already at peak in the high elevations. The first location to transition to fall in California is the Eastern Sierra, where colors are already peaking, according to californiafallcolor.com. The website, founded in 2009 by John Poimiroo, compiles and curates photos from across the state and updates a map detailing current fall foliage conditions.
"It tends to go down in elevation by about 500 feet per week. So after the Eastern Sierra, it's usually like the Hope Valley area tends to be around the second week of October," said Lara Kaylor, who took over for the now retired Poimiroo as the editor and publisher of the site
Other high elevation areas, such as Lassen, Tahoe and Yosemite begin their transition in early to mid-October. Further down in the foothill areas, the best time for leaf peeping is in late October. Urban valley forests, such as those in the Sacramento area, peak in November although many trees start to turn sometime in October.
Poimiroo's latest post on californiafallcolor.com shows patchy fall color in the Apple Hill area, with peak viewing conditions still a week or two away.
The vivid colors will be due to a couple factors, with the primary being the extremely wet year that it has been.
“With the big wet winter that we had, and then all of the rain that we had, in August, we're expecting quite a vibrant display of color this year,” said Kaylor.
According to Kaylor, the excess water and nutrients coming into the leaves will be the catalyst in producing colors even more vibrant than normal now that the days are getting shorter and temperatures are cooling down.
"There's a something called an abscission layer that happens between the leaf and the branch that it's attached to," said Kaylor. "The abscission layer basically cuts off the leaf from getting nutrients from the tree and so if there's already a bunch of water in the leaf, that makes them more vibrant."
Poimiroo mentioned that while California fall color is very consistent in timing compared to the rest of the country, there is one factor that could knock out fall colors quickly, with that factor being the wind.
“If you know a windstorm is coming and you have a beautiful fall color in your yard, go shoot it right now, because after the storm, it might be all on the ground,” said Poimiroo.
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